Federal judges in Minnesota have rejected the Justice Department’s charges against some of the anti-ICE agitators who invaded a church during service earlier this month, and others have released multiple defendants, even as the Justice Department has appealed some of these decisions.

After the Justice Department filed charges against eight agitators for depriving churchgoers of their rights to exercise their religion under the First Amendment, Magistrate Judge Douglas L. Micko declined to issue arrest warrants for five of the defendants, and struck down charges against the others.

The Justice Department appealed the denial of the arrest warrants, a move that Patrick Schlitz, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, said is unprecedented, at least in the courts under the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

The Justice Department claimed that the agitators would likely disrupt a church service again, and many of the leaders have stood by their decision to disrupt the service.

Here are five things to know about the cases.

Between 30 and 40 anti-ICE agitators interrupted a Sunday service at Cities Church, a non-denominational Christian church in St. Paul, and shouted, “Justice for Renee Good!” as they surrounded members of the congregation. 

Videos of the incident show the pastor and others repeatedly asking the agitators to leave, and the agitators chanting, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!”

This is not peaceful protest. This is an invasion of a sacred space. Anti-ICE agitators disrupted Cities Church in the middle of service.

Warning: the agitators on the Left are serious. The man who posted this video bragged about doing this—comparing it to Jesus flipping over… pic.twitter.com/BeeIdubpwM

According to the charging document, a member of the congregation said worshippers were “terrorized,........

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